


Thurisaz

by Tieleen



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-20
Updated: 2013-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 19:48:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/891153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tieleen/pseuds/Tieleen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Yes," Ms. Daniels says, and she actually rolls her eyes, not even trying to disguise it in her tone. Pepper carefully doesn't stare. "She also has a nice long list of credentials. I sent it to you three days ago. You remember, it was after you threw a tantrum about the list Mr. Stane's assistant vetted and told me they all had boring resumes."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thurisaz

Lindsey Wallace is the one who lets Pepper know Stark Industries has her resume. More specifically, she lets Pepper know they have her resume on the shortlist of applicants for a position as Tony Stark's personal assistant, and that the sole reason it ended up there is that Lindsey's boss – the CEO of the company Pepper worked for two years ago – put in both a good word and a bit of string-pulling.

Lindsey is very clear about that part, as well as the fact that even getting called in for an interview is still a long shot. "From what I hear," she says, "Tony Stark is even less predictable than you'd assume from looking at the tabloids. Pepper –"

She pauses, and Pepper waits; Lindsey's an intelligent woman, and although they never worked very closely together, she knows her well enough to expect a degree of honesty.

"It'll be a fantastic career move, obviously," Lindsey says. "But even if it pans out – this isn't an obvious choice. Make sure you look at all the factors."

A few years ago she'd have been a little offended, behind a polite agreement, at the idea that she needed this advice. Now she lets warmth into her voice when she says, "Yes. Thank you."

Lindsey Wallace is, by a conservative estimate, at least two levels and one salary digit above Pepper's current position. Neither of them brings up the connection between Pepper's resume ending up with Stark's people, and the fact that Richard Ebber, Lindsey's boss, owes Pepper his annual bonus from three years ago, and quite possibly the fact that he didn't lose his job.

She ends the conversation and sits there, and thinks about all the factors.

**

She gets her interview. It's scheduled by a Ms. Daniels, a woman clearly in the throes of a nervous collapse.

Pepper feels sympathy until she actually gets to Mr. Stark's office; if she can tell six badly organized things before breakfast, or rather, before properly getting in the door, that should say more than a nervous breakdown can fully account for. Half or more of those things should be the purview of Mr. Stark's secretary, but it means the secretary – studying Pepper with far-too-overt interest as she follows Ms. Daniels through the outer office – shouldn't still be employed in the first place.

Ms. Daniels ignores the secretary completely. It's either astonishingly bad management or the after-stage of giving up on the world wholesale.

Tony Stark's door is big and impressive-looking. Ms. Daniels doesn't knock. "Ms. Potts here to see you," she says, opening it and ushering Pepper inside.

"Potts," the chair back – also big and impressive-looking – says. It doesn't turn. "Is she pretty?"

She's waited a long time for this opportunity, and she knew what to expect. This place was never at the top of her priority list, but it's a year ahead of her most optimistic projection for a job at this level, and it offers some possibilities that never made their way into that projection at all. Pepper can handle it, and she can handle herself.

"Yes," Ms. Daniels says, and she actually rolls her eyes, not even trying to disguise it in her tone. Pepper carefully doesn't stare. "She also has a nice long list of credentials. I sent it to you three days ago. You remember, it was after you threw a tantrum about the list Mr. Stane's assistant vetted and told me they all had boring resumes."

There's a pause. "Did anyone's PA _vet_ this one?"

"No," Ms. Daniels says crisply. "I told Adrian you convinced me to stay on for another six months. That was a lie," she adds, pointedly.

Pepper wishes, a little, that she could see Mr. Stark's expression.

When he answers, though, there's no animosity in his voice. "Yeah, yeah," he says. "Words were said, paperweights were thrown. I told you I'm only giving you the really good references if you don't do that again, right?"

"I've stayed here for a year and a half, Tony," Ms. Daniels says. Pepper blinks. It's an interesting tone – she can identify tiredness and resentment and a sliver of fondness, and probably a handful of other things she has no idea about, all covered with a heavy dose of finality. "Just for surviving that, I have more offers than I know what to do with. If I brain you with office equipment, most of them will just consider it a bonus."

There's another pause. Then the chair says, weakly, "Yeah, well – Rhodey wouldn't like it."

"I'll take that under consideration," Ms. Daniels says. She looks at Pepper. "I'll leave you to your interview now. Good luck."

"Thank you," Pepper says. Whichever way it's meant, it's clearly well-intentioned.

Ms. Daniels leaves, closing the door behind her. Pepper lets the silence stretch for a minute; the chair doesn't turn. She weighs her options and sits down uninvited.

Maybe that was the cue. The chair still doesn't move, but there's a faint sound, and the wall behind it fills up with her apparently-unboring resume, a hundred times normal size.

"Virginia Potts," Tony Stark says. "That's an unusually old-fashioned name."

"Yes," Pepper says. "It was my grandmother's."

"Well," he says, "We like old-fashioned around here." Not a good sign.

Another faint sound; he zooms in, scrolls, pauses. "You worked in an architectural firm?"

"In college," she says, surprised despite herself. It's one of the earlier things on there, and one of the least relevant. "Resource allocations."

"Right," he says. Scrolling, scrolling. Pepper waits, but he doesn't ask anything else. He's either read it before, is an impressively fast reader, or he's pretending to read at all; she estimates the last option to be about 80% likely, the middle one 15%. Maybe 18.

Finally, the chair turns. Pepper doesn't steel herself, because there's no real way to do that without impacting either the way the other person feels about you or the way that you do, but she's prepared. 

She came in prepared; her suit is flattering, and not severe – the thing to aim for, she's found, is an outfit that tells the casual observer that the possibility of anyone judging her on anything but professional merit never even occurred to her. The slightly more well-informed observer would note that yes, of course it had occurred to her, and she had dressed accordingly, even though it's slightly more conservative than her usual taste. _We like old-fashioned around here._ Maybe that was a misstep.

Still, she's been studying Tony Stark for four days now, ever since she found out this chance existed. She's read articles about him in the Wall Street Journal and Scientific American and Us Weekly, and she's watched recordings of news stories and press conferences and red carpet appearances, charity galas and cell phone videos of drunken sidewalk scenes. Longer skirt or not, she's ready for the leer; she suspects it'll be friendly and offensive and somehow ingratiating, unthinking and testing all at once. 

She called it right. The chair swings around quickly, not a dramatic entrance; he glances at her face, but his eyes are already starting the quick sweep down her body. 

Then he stops short, and snaps them up again to meet her gaze.

"You don't look like a Virginia," he says.

She had come in knowing what to expect. She studied the man and she studied his company; she didn't need to study herself, because that part she already knows. Good in a crisis, good at organization and efficiency, good at being prepared; good at professional distance, because really, you have to be. More so when you're a still-young woman with light hair and freckles who prefers her skirts shorter than this one.

She expected him to be charming; she watched other people react to him, over and over, and some of it came easily through the screen. It was something between slick salesman and little-boy charm and the real enthusiasm he showed sometimes, in a handful of appearances that had to do with his work, even fewer that had to do with others'. A big personality people would mind giving way to, but still do. Charm was insidious; she was prepared.

It's different seeing it up close, though. Less of the salesman, though there's still something slick there, and less of the little boy, though she has every confidence that part will come back and be far less charming in person. But there's something real and steady about it that she hadn't expected, and his eyes on her face still look almost surprised, searching. Careful, almost, which she hadn't expected at all.

One concession, she thinks. She can offer one concession; that couldn't be too bad, could it? But she already knows it's a mistake, even before she opens her mouth. 

That sliver of fondness in Ms. Daniels' voice might not have been the reason for the complete exhaustion in her eyes – it might have been the reason she'd stayed on for a year and a half, the first in a string of PAs who quit or were fired within months or less – but it absolutely had to be a contributing factor. Making concessions will be a mistake.

"It's Pepper," she says. "Pepper Potts."

Tony Stark smiles at her. "Ms. Potts," he says, and she notes the step back with surprise, the liberty not taken. "I think we're going to work pretty well together. Sorry, though – I'm afraid you'll have to bring your own paperweight."

**Author's Note:**

> Kael is an awesome human above and beyond the call of all possible duties. Here specifically she's awesome for: title help, suggestions and corrections, patience and reassurence. But in her spare time she also knits, provides obscure trivia, and solves various mysteries of the universe.


End file.
